Practical Magic - A Bethyl AU
by Bethgreenewarriorprincess
Summary: The Greene family curse had been in effect for as long as anyone could remember, the latest victim Beth herself. Now a widow, she and her two young daughters go to live with her aunts. Maggie is off living the life until one night her boyfriend goes off the deep end and Beth has to bail her out of trouble. Enter one Daryl Dixon, tracker extraordinaire and it's about to get messy
1. Chapter 1

**This fic is going to be my take on a Bethyl supernatural type AU. It came at the request of mellymoo13 here on . She thought I could do it justice and I sure hope she was right. Thank you my dear and I hope this does not disappoint. There will be some wizardry and spells and just general magic because it's actually a part of my heritage. But I thought a practical magic AU for Bethyl would be interesting. Warning: This story also contains some Brick at the beginning but its necessary to give Beth's back story with her two young daughters. If you've seen the movie, I am sure you can guess. Also for any Brick readers out there, please know that there is a character death. We will see Rick in flashbacks and that's about it. Just wanted to forewarn everyone so no one is upset or surprised. So without further adieu, here it is:**

Amas Veritas

**Twenty years ago, Gull Island, Georgia**

"I can't wait to fall in love." The brunette girl swung back and forth on the swing tied to the tree in the aunt's yard.

Beth barely glanced at her sister Maggie as she gathered the items she would need for her spell or in her case an anti-spell. She was still heartbroken at the loss of their mother. She had died of a rare heart disorder several months ago after contracting a virus but everyone knew what had really happened. After their father died in a boating accident, their mother had never recovered. In Beth's eyes, she had quite literally died of a broken heart. She was determined she would never suffer the same fate. She would be quite content to live out a life of spells, tea and writing poetry in the old southern plantation their ancestors had settled in over one hundred years ago.

Beth plucked a bright crimson rose petal and placed it into her bowl, beginning the spell.

"He'll hear my call from a mile away." Plucking another she continued down the path of the rosebushes, picking out the brightest and most fragrant petals on the blooms.

"He'll be fiercely protective of those he loves." She hated her voice. Her momma had said she had the voice of a songbird. She didn't know what that meant really, she only knew that the only time she liked her voice was when she sang.

"He will whistle my favorite song." Beth picked another petal.

"He will be marvelously kind." She whispered.

"What are you doing?" Maggie asked her sister. She was so intense sometimes.

"I'm casting a true love spell." Beth informed her primly, picking another petal, this one more vibrant than the last.

"He can flip pancakes into the air." She closed her eyes as she placed it in the bowl.

"He will have wings, large and white, like an angel." Beth whispered to the sky.

"He will be fast and swift and he will carry a bow." Beth placed the final petal into the bowl and with a wave of her hand they began to swirl in a dizzying pattern of reds, candy apple, deep burgundy and crimson. Beth blew gently over the petals and smiled as they swirled up into the night sky, the twinkling stars and full moon a perfect backdrop.

"I thought you didn't want to fall in love." Maggie asked her.

Beth looked at her sister and she felt 80 instead of 8 as one tear slipped out of her eyes. "That's the point, the guy I dreamed up doesn't exist. And if he doesn't exist then I'll never fall in love and die of a broken heart."

_Present Day; Gull Island, Georgia_

"Momma am I witch?" Annie's voice broke Beth from her reverie.

Beth crouched down in front of her youngest daughter, straightening out her collar on her shirt. The girls had started going to the only Catholic school on the island just yesterday. "What made you ask that baby?" Beth could guess. It was only the oldest news on the island. The Greene family curse and how it was all their fault for being witches in the first place.

Annie brushed her chestnut curly hair back from her face as she looked into her mother's eyes. They were blue just like her daddy's and it nearly took Beth's breath away every time she looked into them. "Girls at school. They said you and aunt Maggie were witches and the aunts too."

"Annie my love don't listen to those girls." She stood back up and muttered under her breath "in twenty years nothing has changed on this island?"

"What dear?" Aunt Hattie walked into the kitchen with fresh herbs from the garden. She was the oldest of the aunts and always the first to rise. Aunt Prue was more of a late riser.

Beth sighed looking at her spinster aunt. It didn't seem that long ago that she'd thought she'd be relegated to the same solitary life. "You'd think they'd find something else to talk about after all these years".

"You know how it is dear. The Greene women have been the talk of this island for the last 100 years". Beth rolled her eyes, though she didn't let her aunt see. She spoke of the Greene family curse as if it was a thing of pride. She guessed to the aunts, the curse their ancestor Katherine placed on the Greene women would be a source of pride. It was their heritage but dammit Beth hated it sometimes.

The story went something like this: Katherine Greene had fallen in love with a sailor and they were deliriously happy but then her husband was killed in a tragic accident. She banished herself to Gull Island where she lived out her days as a spinster. Brokenhearted and bitter, she cast a spell upon all Greene women. Any time they should fall in love, their lover would befall a similar tragedy as her beloved. Upon the toll of the death beetle, they would know that Death was coming for their lover. It was only a matter of time. So far, the curse had never been broken. Both aunts had lost their loves as teenagers. Their mother had managed to keep their father Hershel for longer than most. He had died when she and Maggie were 8 and 10, respectively. Their mother, Annette, was dead within a year.

"Bye Momma." Ella whispered. Her oldest child was more sensitive, quieter and even more so since Rick passed.

"Remember, we don't say goodbye, sweetheart." Beth held her chin in her hand and smiled softly at her daughter. She hated goodbyes it was true, but she hadn't gotten to say goodbye to Rick. She didn't know whether to be grateful or not.

Ella beamed at her then, her smile clenching Beth's heart in a tight grip. "That's right Momma, we don't like good-byes. See you later, I love you." Beth smiled at her daughter, the spitting image of herself if the truth were to be told and kissed her forehead.

"You have a great day at school sweetheart." She leaned over and kissed Annie's forehead as well. "And don't be listenin' to those girls at school. You are not witches."

She knew the aunts went against her word and were teaching the girls some of the spells behind her back but she couldn't be mad. Not really. Her own mother had said the same thing but the thing of it was, the Greene family brand of magic was second nature.

Beth sighed as she watched her girls get on the bus for school. Some days it was hard to put one foot in front of the other. Especially on days like today when she missed her husband so bad she wanted to crawl back in bed and never leave. It had only been two weeks since they came to live with the aunts. Beth couldn't bear moping around the three bedroom cottage she and Rick had gutted and rebuilt one detail at a time the first glorious year of their marriage. Every board, every dish, every piece of furniture was a stark reminder of the life she no longer had and the love she had lost. She choked back a sob, the memory a fresh dagger to her already shattered and bleeding heart.

She tidied up in the kitchen. The aunts had gone to bingo at the community center in town. By 10:00 a.m., she'd taken back to her bed. Sophie and Annie were off to school and for five hours she could pretend she was still waiting on Rick to get home, covers over her head.

She missed her sister. "Maggie". Her name came on a choked cry. She'd know just what to say to make her feel better.

More like twins than sisters they'd always had a special bond. The magic they shared, their gift of the Greene coven only strengthened that bond. She covered her head up and sobbed into her pillow barely aware of the passing time of day.

She awoke later with Ella curled beside her. It was dark out. She gently nudged her daughter awake. "Go get in your bed sweetheart". She kissed her oldest child on the forehead her long straight blonde hair tickling her face. She reminded Beth of herself at the same age. At seven she'd been just as gangly. She watched with a heaviness in her heart as she padded out of the room sleepily. Her daughters missed their dad something fierce.

Beth closed her eyes and tried not to think too hard on how good it felt to be in love, to be loved. She had a life she loved and now? He was just gone.

"Wakey, wakey". The whisper came from beside her and her eyes flew open to greet her sister's deep chocolate eyes, full of love looking back her.

"Maggie" she breathed. She dissolved into tears almost immediately. "I was really happy."

"I know Bethie. I'm so sorry I couldn't get here sooner." Maggie crooned as she pulled her into her embrace. She'd given Shane a sufficient amount of Belladonna to get away for a while. She'd be back by the next night and he'd be upset at her absence, but she could deal with him later.

Maggie stroked her baby sister's hair, soft and smooth, so unlike her own coarser, darker hair. As she held her sister as she cried, she was overtaken by a sense of home. Just like that it was like no time or distance had ever separated them. Just like always.

They laid in Beth's bed she'd barely left the past week and Beth told her how Rick had been killed crossing the street. Just a freak accident they'd called it. Rick had been assisting old Mrs. Wells across the street. He had been the Sheriff in town. The truck had come careening around the corner and clipped him in the back of the knees. He'd hit his head on the pavement. Gone in an instant they'd said.

"It was the curse." Maggie breathed.

"I'll never forgive them. I didn't want to fall in love. I didn't ask for this". The aunts had cast a true love's spell, an Amas Veritas, just like the one Beth had performed herself when she was younger and naïve enough to think that she had some kind of control over her life, her fate. She had fallen in love with Rick and he with her and they had never looked back. Little could Beth know, she'd be looking back on that now as a blessing and a curse.

Maggie looked at her sadly. "Beth Anne Greene, you may not have asked for this but your little girls didn't either. I heard your call."

"I didn't summon you Maggie." Beth's tone was low, a warning. Maggie knew how she felt about magic now.

"You didn't have to Beth. Our bond is strong." Maggie said quietly. "But I do know one thing. Your daughters need you. The aunts do too. And I need you. So you need to get up and get out of this bed. And live. Or you'll never forgive yourself."

Beth looked at her sister, hating that she was right. She nodded.

Maggie grinned, a twinkle stealing into her eyes "And brush your damn teeth because your breath stinks!"

Beth giggled then sat up brushing errant strands from her forehead. "Okay, okay you don't have to be mean about it". Beth pretended to be offended. Heart still heavy, Beth gathered items for a much needed shower.

"I met a guy". Maggie was sitting cross legged on the bed twirling her hair around one finger.

"What's his name this week?" Beth teased.

"Shane Walsh". Maggie feigned a swoon. "He's so hot Beth." Maggie flopped backwards on the bed, recounting all the subtle and not so subtle nuances of Shane that she was so taken with. Magic or no magic that man could make a girl feel things. Maggie shook her head.

"He's hot, he's rich, and smart. And so utterly, devastatingly sexy he can charm the panties right off any girl." Maggie wiggled her eyebrows at her sister.

"Mags!" Beth blushed.

"What? It's true. I know he did mine." Maggie pulled her knees to her chest. "Besides you-" Maggie had been about to refer to Beth being an old married lady. Her worried eyes connected with Beth's and she saw the hurt there.

"It's okay, Mags." Just the two of them together again it was hard to imagine anything bad could happen.

"I hate to run, but I gotta get back. Shane doesn't like me goin' places without him but I couldn't let the aunts see him. They would most definitely _not_ approve." Maggie gave her a wolfish grin as she hopped off the bed and grabbed her bag from the floor. Beth walked her to the balcony off her room where she had likely slipped in.

"I love you Bethie." Maggie threw her arms around her sister's neck.

Beth drew in a deep breath. She would not cry. "Gonna miss you Magpie." Beth used their father's nickname for her.

"I'll be right here." Maggie pulled out of Beth's embrace and tapped her on the forehead. It was true. Ever since they were small, they had been able to communicate somewhat telepathically without ever being told how. No one questioned it. They just knew it. It was a large part of why Beth and Maggie had been teased in school.

If Beth was going to admit it, Ella and Annie were already showing signs of the same thing.

"Love you Maggie." Beth called out into the night, watching her sister walk across the plantation lawn to the waiting taxi.

Beth looked up at the stars and all at once she recalled the night, a night just like this one, where the full moon hung in the sky and she'd cast a spell to never fall in love. Without even thinking about it she chanted a recall of the Amas Veritas, hoping with all her might that she'd remain alone until the day she died. It was the only way she could survive.

"_The guy I dreamed up doesn't exist. And if he doesn't exist then I'll never fall in love and die of a broken heart."_

**Okay I am dying to know what you guys think of this story? Daryl will come in end of next chapter at the earliest, I am still trying to fit it all in. This is where the story will deviate from the movie a bit, how Daryl fits into the picture. But you'll see. ;) And I think you will like it. I have carpediem-365 to thank for her splendid idea there and of course again mellymoo13 for requesting this in the first place.**

**Heavenly Encounter will be updated later tonight so be on the lookout for it. Until next time, xoxoxoxo**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**Omg you guys! All those favorites and follows and reviews! I am overwhelmed and my cup runneth over. Thank you so so much! I am feelin' the love. Hope I earn your praise with this chapter here. **

**Okay a few things. I changed the name of Beth's oldest child because in the line of my slight plot shift I needed the name of Sophia. It fits better anyways. Number two an Amacitia, the name of this chapter is a spell for friendship. It is cast to ward away loneliness in the hopes that a friend will arrive at your door. My knowledge of magic extends 50% back to my own ancestors and traditions and stories passed down from generation to generation and 50% from my gut instinct. Don't ask me how. I'll just use the tagline from the movie. "There's a little witch in all of us" Lastly, there is definite Brick in this chapter and a bit of a time jump so we can move the story along. Now without further adieu:**

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><p><em>Amacitia <em>

_Beth's breath hitched in her chest as she felt his fingers sliding along her already wet opening and she moaned into his mouth. She hiked her leg up higher on his hip as he pressed her into the wall of their bedroom, the plaster cool on her bare back where he'd just stripped her shirt over her head. _

_His lips left hers and she was bereft for a moment before his lips found her neck, nudging her jaw to the side, gaining access to the smooth column of her throat. "Rick." She breathed into his hair, her eyes feeling heavier by the minute as his fingers worked their magic between her legs. She pressed her hips into him more fully, needing to amplify the contact and he growled against her neck, the vibrations sending a ripple of chills over her flesh down into her bones, every inch of her skin aching for him to touch her all at once. _

_He reached down abruptly and wrapped her legs around his waist while he walked them to the bed, depositing her none too gently on their bed and slotting his body over hers. Beth loved every delicious pound of weight settling his broadly muscled chest over her nipples, the rosy buds tight and hard from desire. She watched, her breathing staccato as she watched him pull her shorts from her body. _

_He smirked at her. "You ain't wearing any panties. That's a naughty thing Mrs. Grimes." _

"_To not wear panties?" She grinned as he moved his way back up her body, stopping to inhale deeply at the top of her thighs. _

"_Mmmmm. I'll give this the proper attention later." He grinned wolfishly as he nudged her thighs open, Beth happily obliging as she watched him shuck his pants and boxers off in record time. "Nah, it's a crime to not tell your husband." He growled as he positioned himself at her dripping wet center. He entered her in one fluid movement as they both groaned, his lips crashing against hers as he swallowed her throaty cry. _

_He thrust into her again and again, his slickness against her heat creating a friction that had Beth teetering on the edge and pulling back so much that she thought she would lose her mind. Rick reached between them and found that bundle of nerves and pressed his thumb over it as he pumped himself into her, harder and harder and all the sudden it was too much and she came with a thunder falling apart around him, the waves crashing over her again and again until she lay spent. _

_Afterwards he pulled her into his arms, his lips finding her hair as he whispered, his voice taking on a dream like far away quality and all the sudden he was gone from beside her, the bed empty, cold and she was alone. _

_His voice lingered in the room fading into the night and it was like he was never there at all. "I miss ya Beth. But ya gotta move on." _

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><p>Beth awoke from her dream with a start, an ache between her legs and stranger than any of it, her heart lighter than it had been in months. She puzzled at that. Normally these dreams made her sadder than anything and she could do nothing but lay in the bed and cry for an hour. But not today. She sat up straighter and ran a hand through the mess of curls on her head. She kept threatening to cut it but something inside her wouldn't let her. So she left it.<p>

As she dressed she thought over the dream. It had been rather erotic, if she did say so herself. She had been thinking about the night Sophie had been conceived before she went to bed last night and she guessed that was what prompted the dream about him. Dreams were nothing new. She dreamed about Rick nearly every night. She missed him something fierce but last night before she went to bed, she had been desperate to cure her broken heart and had drank an entire bottle of wine and wrote poetry well into the night. She supposed the wine didn't help the content of her dream either.

She felt lighter though and she could only attribute it to the weekly conversations with her sister and her grief counselor Tara. Between the two she had at least two occasions to talk about everything, literally everything, even magic, without feeling like she was going to lose her mind. Tara told her she was making great progress and that pretty soon she wouldn't need to come anymore. Beth wasn't sure about that and besides she felt comfortable with Tara. She got the feeling that were it not for the nature of their relationship they might be friends.

She walked the four blocks to the store she had opened last week. It had been three months since they had moved in with the aunts and so far things were pretty much as they always had been. It was almost as if Ella and Annie were living out her and Maggie's childhood. The Greene curse. It had kept them prisoner for a century, forcing every Greene woman to live out the same fate time and time again.

The store had been her idea before Rick had died but she had somehow lacked the motivation to go through with it until now. It was a small boutique in the hustle and bustle of Main Street, which had a very southern Bohemian feel to it. The Apothecary as Beth had named it was a dual vision of hers and Rick's, a place where people could get high quality soaps and lotions with natural ingredients and also a place where Beth's creative side could come alive. She made jewelry from moonstone and jasper, amulets and pendulums mostly with the occasional bracelet thrown in. She invited the local townspeople to consign their handmade items in her store for a small fee. She had only been open for three months and business was pretty steady.

Oh there were a select few people that avoided the store like she was selling satanic bibles and painting upside down crosses on people's lawns with bat's blood. But it didn't bother her. Somewhere over the past three months, she had come to an acceptance that this was her life. She was getting her wish in a way. She had wanted to live out her life with the aunts, writing poetry and drinking tea. Beth smiled to herself, completely unaware that her spoon was rotating in her cup of Earl Grey, seemingly of its own accord.

The day passed with a steady stream of activity in the shop. That afternoon, she heard it before she saw it. The chant. The awful damn chant that had been passed down from generation to generation of idiots on Gull Island.

"Bitch, bitch, you're a witch." The cries came from outside her shop window. The girls walked to her shop every day after school. Today, it looked like they had company.

The spoon clattered loudly in the cup, the amber liquid sloshing over the sides onto the counter, as Beth rounded it to cross the store to the front door, her anger spurring her on.

"You'd think after all these years, they'd come up with a better rhyme." She muttered to herself.

Ella stuck her finger out and pointed. "I hope you…..you…I hope you get chicken pox." A collective gasp came from the gathered crowd.

"Ella Grimes!" She bent down to meet her daughter at eye level. "We do not cast!" Her voice came out as a hushed hiss.

"No mama! You don't cast. You probably couldn't even if you tried." She watched, her mouth dropped open as her daughter took her sister's hand and said. "Let's go Annie."

Beth heard her youngest as they walked into the shop hand in hand. "I think you hurt Mama's feelings." Beth's heart clenched in her chest. Why was life so damn hard? She turned back to the small crowd of people and with what dignity she had left walked back into the shop, fighting off an insane urge to flip them all off.

She thought about her young daughters, their innocence and hope so recently shattered. Maybe she was being too hard on them. They had lost someone too.

Suddenly Beth remembered how much being with the aunts and eating chocolate cake for breakfast and doing magic until the wee hours of the night had helped her. It had smoothed over the hurts in her heart. They were still there and she still missed her parents something awful but at least she had Maggie. And her wonderfully wacky aunts. Things could be worse, she decided and from that moment on, she vowed to be a little more lenient when it came to letting the girls partake in magic.

As she peaked into the back room where the girls did their homework, she had to smile. Their heads were bent together and they were whispering in only a language they understood. Between them they had three brown candles and a piece of paper in a metal bowl. "This will work, Annie. I know it. We'll have friends soon. Or else we can just be each other's friend." Sophie leaned forward and hugged her sister. She pulled away and touched her finger to the candles, leaning over and gently blowing. She pulled her finger away from the candles, a satisfied smile gracing her lips. Annie paper and placed it in the bowl with the candles and they both chanted softly.

"_With heart and mind I do now speak  
>Bring to me the one I seek.<br>Let this paper be the guide  
>And bring this new friend to my side.<em>

_Pain and loneliness be no more  
>Draw a compatriot to my door.<br>With pleasures many and sorrows few  
>Let us build a friendship new.<em>

_Let not this simple spell coerce  
>Or make my situation worse.<br>As I will it, so mote it be."_

Beth couldn't help the slight upturn of her lips as she walked away. She hoped the spell worked. Everyone could use a new friend, she thought to herself.

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><p><strong>THREE MONTHS LATER<strong>

The door chime rung out and Beth called out from the back room where she was taking inventory on their most popular soap, the purple jasmine oatmeal blend. It was one of Beth's personal favorites but she had forgone buying it lately as she could barely keep it in stock. "I'll be right there!"

Beth stood up from where she was crouching on the floor and smoothed her hand over her jeans and walked back to the front of the store, the heels of her boots echoing in the storeroom. She couldn't believe how busy they had been lately.

She walked out to find a man in her shop, browsing through the lotions at the counter then moving to the display of necklaces, some of them ones she had crafted herself. "How can I help you?" She said, smiling warmly at the tall stranger. His hair was a bit too long and cast over his eyes slightly. She took in his strong build. He was more than a man, he was a presence almost. The thought was fleeting as he looked up from the display and Beth was taken aback by his eyes. They were the most sterling blue she had ever seen and despite their cool hue, they seemed to fairly smolder as they caught her gaze.

He nodded in her direction. "Need somethin' for my niece. Her birthday's Saturday."

Beth smiled at him knowingly. "How old?"

The man's eyes were disarming. "Ten. She's different."

Beth cocked her head to the side. "How so?"

"She wears her clothes different than other kids. She don't play with toys. Says they're for babies." Daryl reached up and ran a hand through his hair.

"Does she listen to music?" Beth had made sure they had a nice selection of CD's when she could.

"Yeah, but I don't know any of the bands she listens to. Mostly loud and screaming stuff." Daryl said thinking of Sophia with her ripped up jeans and combat boots, just like the kind her Daddy used to wear, before he took to the bottle and got kicked out of the Army. He loved his brother but he could be a shit. He was currently in jail for his umpteenth run in with the law, leaving Carol to raise Sophia by herself. With the kid's birthday coming up, he figured she could use something to cheer her up, something to maybe give her hope.

Beth nodded. She remembered Maggie going through a phase like that. She directed the man to the rack of amulets, fingering the rose quartz one Tara's sister had made. "She might like this." Beth watched, mesmerized as his large fingers ran over the pink stone.

"What's it do?" He asked, taken in by her bright smile and blue eyes, her form light and delicate. She reminded him of a bird. He shook his head to clear his stupid thoughts. What the fuck Dixon?

"It's good for balancing the yin and yang. Like the two sides of a person's soul. It also restores healing from emotional wounding." Beth's voice trailed off at the end, thinking she might need some rose quartz herself. She pulled the delicate silver chain from the display, the prism shaped quartz dangling from the end. It was a beautiful representation with muted pinks and whites and an almost milky hue.

Daryl didn't know why he was looking at this slip of a girl, all doe-eyed and innocent yet it looked like she held the pain of a thousand lifetime in her eyes. He shook his head and blinked, his hand coming up to the back of his neck, massaging out the sudden tension there. "I'll take it. Can you wrap it?" He asked as he reached in his back pocket for his wallet.

Beth nodded eagerly and flashed him a quick smile before turning to the counter, her hip knocking something loose and the end of the counter falling to the floor with a loud clatter. "Damn." She swore softly as she knelt to pick up the fallen container of mood rings. They were cheap dime store fodder but for whatever reason the kids that came in asked for them incessantly. Who knew she'd be making a living on fancy soaps and gumball prizes?

"Your husband ought to shore up that counter, stabilize it a bit." He knelt to help her pick up all the fallen rings that had scattered all over the floor of the shop as she followed along with the plastic container, helping him return them to their proper place.

His last word died on his lips as he looked at her, her gaze suddenly affixed to his and he knew. He saw the pain there. The pain of loss. He'd felt that way once, when his ma passed, burning down their whole house while they were at school, their Daddy off on a bender somewhere. They'd gone to the state for a while after that until their old man deemed to show his face, convincing the assholes in charge that he was fit to be a parent.

She cleared her throat and stood, after placing the last ring in the container. "My husband passed away." She turned from the counter, hating that her emotions had crept in at this moment. She had the oddest array of feelings. Thinking about her dead husband and standing here with this man that she was so completely drawn to but not really in a sexual way. Just something about him exuded warmth, but it was deep under the surface.

He nodded, unsure of what to say. "'M sorry about that. My brother left recently, so it's just her and her Ma. I think that's why she is like she is. Drivin' her to grey hairs." Carol had aged considerably since Merle had been locked up. He tried to help out with Sophia when he could but his job was demanding at times, often he would be gone for weeks. "I could fix it for ya." For reasons he wouldn't understand, he found is mouth opening as if he had no say in the situation. He gestured to the countertop as he sat the broken piece to the side.

"I couldn't ask you to." Beth said, placing his purchase in the bag after taking his money and placing it in the register. She handed him his change and his bag, her hand touching his briefly. She looked up in surprise and his eyes met hers.

He shrugged. "Think of it as a thank you. I'm gonna be the hero when she opens this. Only wish I could tell it like you do." He said honestly. She had a way with words like no other person he'd ever talked to.

Beth blushed. "Just tell her that her uncle is a good man. Are you sure you can fix it?" She motioned to him. She didn't know his name.

"Daryl." His voice was slightly gruff as he dug out his card from his wallet. "I'll be by tomorrow. Say around noon?"

"I'm Beth." She didn't know whether to extend her hand or not. In the end, he extended his and Beth marveled at how big his hands were compared to her own. All too soon, he was stepping away.

"See ya tomorrow Beth." He called over his shoulder.

Beth hoped he didn't hear her quiet gasp as the shop door closed. She watched his retreating form, his black leather vest stretching across his broad shoulders, hand-stitched angel wings covering the entire back side.

All at once for a brief moment she recalled that night twenty years ago. The Amas Veritas.

"_He will have wings, large and white, like an angel."_

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><p><strong>Okay, there's chapter two you guys! I hope you like it! Thank you sooooooo much for all the reads, reviews, follows and favorites! You guys are the absolute best. I can't believe how many wonderful reviews I got. I am still getting to individual replies. Until next time loves, xoxoxoxoxo <strong>


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Protego Me

Just after Daryl left she couldn't believe her luck but the back room sprung a leak in the ceiling and then it started to rain. Predictably the next morning there was a puddle on the floor in front of the desk. She mopped up as best as she could and she hoped fervently that Daryl could tell her someone who was a roofer to fix whatever was going wrong with the place now.

He wasn't wearing his vest when he came in the next day but it was alright by her. Seeing those wings on his back had reminded her too much of her anti-love spell and that was just something that she didn't need to think about just now. Not when she had more important things to do like ogle her customer-turned-handyman and how broad his shoulders were as he stretched his arms out to measure the board he was getting ready to cut to affix the counter back in its rightful place. She absently stirred her tea not even realizing that her finger wasn't on the spoon any longer and it was in fact stirring itself around in her cup, making a distinct tinkling sound around the rim of the cup.

He turned around abruptly and she knew she looked like a deer caught in headlights. The spoon clattered in the cup and sloshed liquid over the side. She really needed to stop casting while she was daydreaming. One of these days someone was going to get hurt, she thought.

Daryl grabbed his pencil from behind him and turned back to the board. She had been checking him out huh. Well likewise. He swore he had never seen anybody prettier than Beth Greene in all his days. He left the store the day before with a smile on his face and he knew it had to be because of her. Of course he'd talked himself down since then because when he left there yesterday he had been sure that she was the girl he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with. But as reality set in and he'd gone home he realized it had to have been something he made up in his head. Things like that didn't happen to the likes of him. Good things just weren't destined for the Dixons.

He had concentrated instead on his latest case. He was finishing up his write up on his report for tracking a missing college student. There were not many in his trade and he was well known in the law enforcement circle because of his work with local police on some missing person cases in the past. He had been helping the feds with this one and though he didn't like getting involved in government shit it was someone who was a friend of Carol's and he hadn't been able to say no. When he'd found her last week, tied up in some sick fuck's garage with nothing more than a t-shirt and a blanket on the floor, he'd known that he was right to stay away from cases like these. He didn't have the stomach for it. He couldn't abide people hurting women. He hadn't been able to get the case out of his head since then. He'd tracked her with nothing more than the keys she had been carrying when she was taken. She had dropped them and he had picked up various clues from then on out.

But now that he was back here and this pretty little miss was eyeballing him and most definitely checking him out and his stupid pea brain went right back to forever and flowers and hearts and shit. What the hell was wrong with him?

Beth could not take her eyes from him and she suddenly worried that she might be seriously attracted to him. She felt the sudden need of protection and she summoned up her best protection spell in her mind. She walked to the back room and focused on her center, pulling in her energy and her aura closer to her body and thought with all her might in hues of gold and white and yellow and orange, just basically warm, like the sun. Then chanted softly, in a near whisper the spell for protection, a Protego Me chant.

_The breath of life__**  
><strong>__And the light of my mind__**  
><strong>__Creates an enchantment__**  
><strong>__Of protection and comfort__**  
><strong>__As the air I breathe is purified__**  
><strong>__I surround myself with an orb of gold__**  
><strong>__This golden haze__**  
><strong>__Is constantly purified__**  
><strong>__And separated from any negativity__**  
><strong>__May my space be protected_

Daryl got up to go to the back room. He wasn't sure if Beth wanted the ends sanded rounded all the way around or if she wanted a slight edge to it. The place was set up to be rustic just like an old apothecary would be and that made it easy for re-fitting the place. But when he got to the door, he had to blink twice to see if he was missing something and by the time he did whatever it was had faded. But he could swear a moment ago Beth was lit up by some kind of glow and it made her appear even more ethereal than usual.

She felt instantly better for it and a soft smile played on her face, which immediately died when she saw the look on Daryl's face.

It was the creaking that made him look up and then leap across the few feet between them and knock her out of the way before the 2x4 fell from the rafter. It felt awkwardly behind them and made a lot of noise and took down a shelf on the wall on its way down but it had missed Beth. He didn't know what had made him do what he did. Instinct, he guesssed, but he was in a fix now. He was very much in the personal space of Beth Greene and she was definitely in his. The question was whether or not either of them minded it.

Beth didn't have time to process anything before Daryl was on her and even as she knew that a piece of the rafters had fallen with the ceiling, he was very much on top of her. She was leaned back on her desk and he had his arms braced on either side of her head and his face was inches from hers. He smelled divine and she didn't know where she got the air to breathe because it was getting more shallow by the minute. But he smelled like forest and man and she could breathe him in all day.

He finally came to himself and pushed himself up off of her and held down a hand to help her up from the awkward position he had knocked her into when he had come across the room like gangbusters.

"You okay?" He looked her over and she didn't look any worse for wear.

Beth was oddly bereft when he left her personal space so quickly. It was like he had been there forever and then suddenly gone. She was inexplicably reminded of Rick and then just as quickly that thought was replaced by Daryl's question snapping her back to the present. She looked at him equal parts dazed and like she was seeing the light for the first time.

She was supposed to know this man for some reason. She summoned a protection spell around him and then suddenly he saves her? It was not an accident. She looked up at him again, finally answering him. "I think so. Are you?" She asked him and without her even having to say anything he caught her meaning.

She looked at him expectantly. She looked at him like he had some kind of answer. He nodded his head. It was what was expected but what had just happened between them defied anything on his repertoire of dealings with women which albeit was very slim but he just couldn't shake that she was different.

He cleared his throat as he helped her stand upright again, knowing his fingers lingered longer on her hand than was absolutely necessary but she didn't seem to mind so neither did he. "You'll be needing somebody to look at that roof. My brother specializes in it. I could have him come over and give you an estimate later tonight."

Beth nodded her head. "I'm lucky you were here, Mr. Dixon. Thank you." It seemed so trite in light of the fact that he likely had just saved her from a concussion or at the very least a bad headache. He was saving her too from a figurative headache by offering his brother's services.

"Daryl." He nodded at her. "Only my old man goes by Mr. Dixon."

"Thank you Daryl. It seems I am in your gratitude now." She was being coy and she knew it. But it still didn't stop her.

He studied her for a minute. "Nah, we're even. The necklace remember."

Beth shook her head. "Nope. You saved my life. That counts for somethin'."

He nodded at her. He didn't know about that. He wasn't the damsel savin' type. But damn if he hadn't done just that. He finished up the job and helped Beth clean up the mess in the back room. By the time he finished it was near closing time for her. He tried not to think too much about the fact that he was hanging out like he was some kind of friend. He had never really had friends before.

Beth looked at him as he walked out of the door ahead of her and she turned the key in the lock. She turned back to face him. "You want to get a cup of coffee?" Saving a life for a cup of coffee.

Beth knew she had placed the protection spell on herself to keep herself from wanting to fall for this man but what if he could just be her friend. Maybe something of her girls' spell had rubbed off on her the day before and she needed a friend. And maybe just maybe he needed one too. She held her breath as she waited on his response.

Daryl nodded. "Coffee sounds great. Where do you want to go?" Worse things could happen than going to get coffee with a beautiful blonde beside him. Worse things had already happened to him. But looking at Beth, smiling ear to ear it felt like things might be looking up.

She beamed at him and took his arm. "I know just the place." As they headed up the street, she couldn't help but think again of that long ago chant as a little girl. A little girl who thought she had the world at her finger tips. Oh how wrong she had been.

She wished she could say she was surprised at the realization of part of the charm but by now, nothing with magic surprised her.

"_He will be fiercely protective of those he loves."_

That long ago spell came back to haunt her. She just dismissed the thought with a wing and a prayer and another round of a protection chant, looking forward to coffee with a friend. Her new friend, Daryl Dixon.

**So what do you think? It wasn't much just an establishing of a friendship basically but remember she is a widow. This was basically a bridge building chapter for the next one and the one after. Hope you liked it but be sure to let me know. Until next time xoxoxo **


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